A Series of Unfortunate Misunderstandings
by waterlilylf
Summary: Duo discovers that dealing with disruptive flower girls and sorting out seating plans for the wedding of the century is a doddle compared to sorting out his own problems, and Heero seems determined to complicate everything..
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the GW characters and write about them purely for fun.

Note: Many thanks to the wonderful Kaeru Shisho for editing and to Dyna and Wolfje for laughing.

**Chapter 1/2:**

As usual, I was the only one to turn up for breakfast, which at the Winner/Barton mansion was served on the terrace overlooking the Italian garden. Just me and a buffet that could have fed most of L2 – assuming they'd recognised half the stuff as edible – and a couple of white-jacketed flunkeys to hover discreetly in the background.

Happy couples apparently didn't turn up for breakfast. They ate it lounging on pillows in their four-poster beds, probably naked, sensuously licking stray croissant crumbs from their beloved's lips, sharing kisses that tasted of freshly squeezed exotic fruit juices, and feeding each other chocolate-dipped strawberries and peeled grapes.

OK, rewind.

Even my imagination boggled at that one. I couldn't imagine Chang Wufei peeling a grape, much less hand-feeding it to anyone, although he and Zechs _had_ been all over each other since they'd arrived. They'd been doing weird couply things for the past two days; tenderly brushing stray strands of hair from each other's cheeks, and whispering sweet nothings.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

But it hadn't been easy being the solo guy staying with a blissfully engaged, about-to-be-joined-for-all-eternity couple, and it hadn't got better when Zechs and Wufei turned up. They'd only been together for a couple of months; short enough that they were still at the glowing stage where they couldn't keep hands – or other bodily parts – to themselves. I'd started knocking before I went into any room, since the morning I'd walked into the library and found Wufei dry-humping Zechs. Yeah, that had been kind of weird.

So I'd got used to having breakfast alone; me and my laptop and my lists of the day's tasks. I hadn't been expecting company.

Certainly not Heero.

It wasn't like I'd forgotten he'd arrived; more that I'd buried the knowledge under layers of things I needed to sort out. Quat's sister Aurora had mentioned last night that her outfit for the ceremony was kingfisher blue, and I happened to know that Cathy's dress was in that same shade. Women care about this stuff.

And there was some hitch with the shipment of snow-white doves Q wanted to be released. God knows why. Doves are just pigeons with fancier feathers. They still shit over everything.

So I'd managed to sublimate Heero under a thick layer of pigeon shit. Sorry. That's a pretty gross image.

He'd turned up just in time for dinner the previous night, looking like an assassin who was on his way to a _Vogue_ photo shoot. Black suit, black silk shirt; black tie with a slightly darker black pattern.

We'd been seated at opposite ends of the table, so we hadn't had to talk, and after dinner he'd been snaffled by a couple of Quat's sisters, so I hadn't needed to make nicey-nice conversation with him. I'd thought he'd be too jet-lagged to come down for breakfast this early in the morning.

Wrong.

'Good morning, Duo.' He was in casual clothes this morning; jeans and a red shirt. He'd always looked amazing in red; it set off his skin tone and all that dark, dishevelled hair to perfection.

'Hey.'

We made little bits of small talk for a few minutes; me recommending the chocolate almond pastries and Heero asking my opinion of what juice to try. We could do that; make meaningless conversation about food.

Like we were still best friends, who could bicker for hours over the relative merits of burgers and sushi.

'So…..how's the garage going?' Heero finally ran out of complimentary things to say about the platter of carved tropical fruits, and the baked goods, and settled for our other staple topic of work.

'You know. Still standing.' It was my standard reply when I got asked that question. It was even true, pretty much, if only because I had so many engine parts and tools stacked around the four crumbling walls, that there was no way they could collapse.

With Tro, I sometimes did elaborate a bit, because he liked to tinker around with engines just as much as me, but the others were never that interested.

Well, why would they be? Heero had given up saving the world in favour of starting his own stunningly successful security firm; Wufei was a shining light in the Preventers, who'd snagged a handsome prince. Quatre had WEI, of course, and Trowa was heading up a foundation that helped endangered animals and their habitats.

It wasn't like they'd be all that interested in a back-street, one-man garage.

'How's work going for you? I hear you're opening a branch in Sanque.'

'That's right. Next month.'

'Cool.'

Odd, how we'd all somehow gravitated to Sanque. For Wufei, it had been a given. It was where Preventer HQ was located. After a year or so on L4, Quatre had decided it was time for WEI to go global and set up subsidiaries on Earth. He claimed he'd set up the head office in Sanque because of its location – right in the middle of Europe – and because the country had a young, well-educated workforce, but I think there'd been a bit of sentiment in there too. Plus he'd always admired Relena, and Trowa just happened to be doing a zoology course at the Royal Peacecraft University so it was nice and handy.

After my not-so-successful attempt to set up a salvage business on L2 – during which I'd lost all my savings (OK, money I'd hacked during the war and my ESUN pension) and almost my friendship with Hilde (we had never been meant to live together) it had seemed logical to head for Sanque and my other friends.

Heero, to date, was the only one who'd resisted the magnetic pull of the place. Guess why? Still, just because he was setting up offices here, didn't mean he'd actually be spending all that much time around.

Our little conversation dwindled to a silence that wasn't really comfortable but wasn't screaming agony either, and was then annihilated by my 'phone ringing.

Distracted by Heero's presence, I answered without looking at the number. Ooops.

I took a deep breath, listening to the voice at the other end. 'Hey, Chris. Look, I'm sorry, OK? I promise, I'll be there this morning. _Yes_. Eleven o'clock. And I'm sorry about yesterday; something really important came up. Yeah, I know, I _am_ taking this seriously. I'll see you later.'

'Who was that?' His eyes were suddenly focused on me, all on me.

I shrugged, licking one finger and using the tip to pick up the little crumbs I'd scattered by my plate, before one of the minions could dart in and do it for me. 'Um, just this guy I've been seeing for a few weeks now. He likes to call me first thing.'

And if Heero wasn't comfortable with me rubbing my sexuality in his face, that was just too bad. He didn't have issues with Trowa and Quatre. I knew he'd been thrilled when Wufei and Zechs had finally hooked up.

I was the only one he had a problem with. Of course, that was possibly because I was the only one who'd kissed him, and declared undying love.

Just a random guess.

'Are you asking him to the wedding?'

'No.' To signify the subject was closed, I flipped open my laptop, checking for new emails.

Heero's eyes widened as he saw the screen saver; something I'd doodled in a rare moment I'd had to myself. Grim reapers and bats chasing each other through the gothic letters.

'Duo, what on earth is Code Black?'

I had to laugh at the look on his face. 'It's my list of the most terrible things that could happen at the wedding. From terrorist attacks to the champagne not being correctly chilled or Trowa having a panic attack and running away to the circus.'

He blinked. 'Is the last a remote possibility?'

'No way. I've got Auda and Rashid keeping tabs on him. Just in case.'

He obviously hadn't a clue whether to take that seriously or not; once upon a time, he'd been able to tell when I was joking. 'I hadn't thought all this fuss would be Trowa's style.'

'It's not. He wanted something small, but Quat wants all the frills. I think it's partly to do with his sisters; they're not all in favour of the wedding and they expected him to have a very low-key, discreet ceremony so Quat's going all out instead. Plus you know Quat, he loves having people around and Tro would go along with anything to keep him happy.'

'They're very lucky, I think.'

'Yeah. Me too. And it's been fun getting involved in all the planning.'

Hero blinked, casting his eyes over sub-headings on the spreadsheet. 'My God, I've been on missions that weren't planned this thoroughly. What are emergency flower petals?'

'They're for Quat's two little nieces to sprinkle as they walk in front of him. I've got extra supplies in case they drop them or something.' Or start a fight, as they'd done at the rehearsals. Trowa had thought it was funny; two angelic-looking little girls in ringlets and princessy dresses, pelting each other with rosebuds. I think Quat had called his lawyer to have the kids taken out of his will. _After_ he'd calmed down.

'Where are the others?'

'Let's see.' I flicked open their itineraries. 'The plan for this morning is that Quat's working on his vows, Trowa and Zechs are wine tasting and Wufei has an hour off to meditate before an appointment with his tailor. And I've got to show Quat the seating plan I've come up with.'

I winced. That wasn't going to be fun. Quat's sisters are mostly OK by themselves, but _en masse_ they can be kind of intimidating. And rude in a snooty way. I wasn't sure how well they were going to gel with Tro's old buddies from the circus.

The other problem was that Heero and I were the only ones who were attending minus 'plus ones', which meant we'd have to sit together. Unless I could get Quat to scare up a couple of distant cousins who somehow hadn't been invited yet or Tro could be persuaded to borrow a couple of circus chimps and dress them up.

Heero shook his head. 'I can't believe you're doing all this. Quatre must have a dozen assistants and I'm sure there are people who do this professionally.'

I stared at him over my glass of juice. 'He's my best friend, Heero. I'm not going to let some stranger plan his big day. I want to be a part of this, and I know he'd feel the same if I was the one getting hitched.'

Some chance of that happening. Although, on second thoughts, the way things were going I'd probably end up having to find someone on the internet and marry them for money.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. The point was that Quat was my friend, part of my gang, and the most important thing in life was looking after your gang. Solo had dinned that into me when I was just a little kid, and Father Maxwell had reinforced it the very first time I'd heard him preach.

I hadn't been all that impressed with my first church service up 'til then; stories about people with really weird names that weren't really stories at all but something called parables. And then he'd started talking about something called the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat people the way you'd want to be treated, in other words.

It made perfect sense. It was exactly how Solo's gang had operated. If you had food, you shared with the rest, because you didn't know if you'd have anything the next night, and you'd damn well want the others to share with you.

It made me think that somewhere in the middle of all the preachy stuff, there was a germ of sense in religion.

'Anyway,' I shoved my chair back and stood up, scooping my computer under one arm. 'I'd better get going. I told Quat I'd see him at eight. See you later.'

He nodded. 'I thought we could maybe talk at some point?'

'Sure.' I said it far too heartily, already planning talk-avoidance schemes in my head. 'That'd be cool.'

No way in hell. Still, we'd done a pretty good job of avoiding each other for the past seven months, and I was up to my eyes in wedding stuff. I'd be able to keep out of his way. I was the wedding planner; I could just keep Heero planned away from me.

Quatre's desk was covered with lists and the floor was littered with screwed-up pieces of paper and he was wearing a wreath of pink rosebuds in his hair. He looked damned cute. Lucky Trowa.

'Hey, Q. Nice flowers.'

'Aren't they lovely? The florist made this one to show me what Pippa and Louisa would have in their hair.' He coloured slightly. 'Since my hair is the same colour as theirs, I thought I'd try it on to make sure it looked all right.'

'Very sensible. You know, you should wear something like that yourself, on the big day. Brighten your suit up a little bit.'

'Oh, I couldn't possibly. I was just being silly. But the girls will look adorable, won't they? Provided they behave themselves better than the rehearsal. Or I'll disinherit the pair of them.'

'I think maybe they're a bit young to care about that. I mean, they're only four! Couldn't you promise them treats instead if they're good? Charm bracelets or Barbie dolls or something?'

'What a clever idea!' He seized the nearest list and wrote _Ponies x 2_ at the bottom. 'You know, if you didn't have the garage, you could do this professionally.'

'Well, you never know. Always good to have a trade to fall back on.' If it did come to that, Quat would be a pretty good reference.

'Now, did you have a nice breakfast?' he enquired, in that innocently charming way that means he's up to something. I suddenly remembered his and Tro's room overlooked the breakfast terrace.

'Lovely. Thank you. Now, I've made a rough draft of the seating plan if you want to have a quick look and tell me what you think.'

'I think it's bound to be fine. I wish you'd tell me what's going on with you and Heero.'

'Nothing. Why would it be?' I couldn't match his wholly spurious of angelic innocence, but I did my poor best.

'I think you've spent long enough avoiding each other and it's time you sorted out whatever's wrong.'

I shrugged. 'Nothing's wrong. We're friends.'

'Used to be friends,' Quat corrected tenaciously. 'Very good friends, until something happened last year. And you both utterly refuse to discuss it.'

'Which just possibly means we don't want to. And that it isn't anyone's business.'

He clicked his tongue against his teeth. 'It's _your_ business, both of you. Did you know Heero almost didn't accept my invitation? I practically had to _beg_ him to come. '

'Well, there you go. He pretty obviously can't stand being around me.' Damn, that hurt. Well, it was my own fault. I was the one who'd ruined it all between us.

'Oh, Duo!' He gave his tongue another exasperated little click. 'Don't be silly! I happen to know that he rang Rashid at 5 am to find out where you usually eat breakfast?'

'You know that how exactly?'

Blue eyes sparkled. 'I like to know what's going on in my own home.' He pursed his lips slightly, frowning at the sheet of paper in front of him. 'I hope I haven't used too many musical metaphors in my vows. I don't want to belabour the point, but it _was_ music that brought us both together.'

'Want me to take a look?'

'Stop changing the subject. This nonsense with you and Heero has gone on long enough. Duo, Saturday is the most important day of my life. I want my two best friends to be happy; I want us all to be friends again. I don't know what Heero did, or didn't do, but you know he'd never have hurt you deliberately.'

'Heero didn't do anything,' I said slowly. 'It was all my fault.' Looking into my best friend's eyes, brimming with concern, I was tempted to tell him just what had happened. But, hell, I'd caused enough problems for Heero; I didn't need to humiliate him by telling anyone else. 'Look, I'll talk to him, OK?'

Apologise and grovel and see if there was some way we could at least put on the semblance of friendship for Quatre's big day.

'I just don't like seeing you sad.' He reached out and touched my arm, very gently. Hell is having an empath for a best friend.

'I'm fine, Q. Listen, I need to head into town this morning. I have to call by the garage and get some stuff from home. I should be back by lunch. You don't need me for anything, do you?'

'No, that's fine. I have a meeting at ten anyway, so I really need to get these written by then. Actually, would you mind looking over what I've done so far?'

'Sure.' I gave the musically-themed vows a quick once over, assured Quatre that Trowa would find every last apostrophe, comma and semi-colon unbearably touching, but that there might be certain dirty-minded persons present who could misinterpret the references to Tro's 'talent for playing the flute' and left him trying to puzzle that out.

Left him to go in search of Heero.

_Just get it over with, Maxwell._

He'd ensconced himself at a desk in the library, fingers flickering over the keys of his laptop. 'Hey. If you're not busy, d'you have a minute?'

'Of course.' He rested both hands on the table edge, gazing at me.

_Oh, Heero. Don't look at me like that._

'I'm sorry.' I said abruptly. 'I guess I should've said this months ago, but I thought you wouldn't want me bringing the subject up, so maybe it was better just never to mention it. I thought that was what you wanted. Now I'm thinking it might have been a mistake, sweeping it all under the carpet, so we've been stepping all around this huge elephant for ages.'

'Duo…'

'No.' I held up one hand. 'Heero, please. Just let me say this, OK? I totally and absolutely screwed up. I'd had way, way too much to drink, and I think maybe someone had spiked that fruit punch, and I was all excited about Quat and Tro getting engaged, and I just lost it. I'd have grabbed Treize Khushrenada if he'd been handy and given him a big smacker. And said all that stupid shit to him. You just happened to be in the wrong place and got in my stupid mouth's way. In every sense. ' I took a deep breath. 'I'm really sorry and I want us to be friends again. D'you think you can get past me doing one stupid drunken thing and try to forget it ever happened?'

He nodded, uncertainly and I forced a smile.

'Great. Really. All sorted then.'

The great thing about having a reputation for never telling a lie, is that people assume you always tell the truth.

Even when you're lying.


	2. Chapter 2

Note: Many thanks to Kaeru Shisho for editing and to everyone who reviewed chapter 1.

**Chapter Two:**

There was a welcoming committee standing on the steps when I got back from town. Quat was frowning and showing Wufei some little bits of fabric, and Heero was pretending to look interested in whatever it was, and Trowa was sitting on the bottom step, looking like he very much wanted to be somewhere else.

Damn. They'd probably had another fight over something quite unbelievably stupid. After ten days of living with them, I knew that the main role of a wedding planner was to keep the peace.

I stuck on a bright smile and climbed out of the car. 'Hey! Everything OK, Quat? 'Cause I know you were panicking about the doves but the guy called me half an hour ago. They should be here on Wednesday.'

Quat nodded, a bit distractedly and held up a blue square of linen. 'That's fine. The only thing is, the napkins were delivered and I think they sent the wrong colour.'

'What doves?' Trowa interrupted.

Quat looked up from his little linen square. 'You know. The ones we're releasing at the end of the ceremony. Duo, I'm sure the fabric we chose was paler than this. I think it's going to clash with the flowers. It's almost sapphire and ….'

'Quatre.' Trowa again. 'Why didn't you tell me about this? We are _not_ having doves at the wedding.'

'But it's going to be so _beautiful_! They're a symbol of peace!'

'I know what doves symbolise. And we are not going to celebrate our wedding by forcing a flock of terrified birds to be dragged half way across the country in a crate, and probably not given any food or water, and then freed in a strange place where they'll probably get eaten by hawks in the first hour. I can't believe you didn't think of asking me about this.'

Oops. No doves then. And probably I could cancel the swans and the butterflies while I was at it.

'Trowa, we talked about this. Don't you remember? I told you last week when we were having breakfast and going through the lists of things that still needed to be done.'

'Oh, Jesus.' Tro ran one hand through his hair; for one tiny fraction of a second you could actually see both eyes. 'Quat, you can't seriously expect me to pay attention to every single piece of crap you tell me about the wedding.'

Uh oh.

Heero and Wufei looked around desperately for a place to hide. Wufei looked like he was considering a dive into the shrubbery; Heero was obviously poised to take cover in the house when the decibel level got too loud. I'd seen it all before, and hitched myself up to sit comfortably on the balustrade and enjoy the show.

'Trowa Barton!' The little tinkly sounds came from glasses exploding all over the universe. If Quat hadn't chosen to go down the terrorist-turned-CEO career route, he'd have made one hell of an opera singer. 'Are you saying our wedding is…._crap_?'

'No, Quatre.' Trowa uncurled himself from his step and stood up, grabbing his partner by the shoulders. Nice. I surreptitiously slid out my 'phone. I was trying to get a montage of 'natural' shots for the wedding video and this would be perfect. 'I'm saying that you obsessing over every stupid finicky little detail is crap. What the hell does it matter if the damn napkins don't exactly match the colour of your eyes or whatever? People are going to wipe their hands on them and throw them on the floor. No one's going to notice the colour! '

'Well, excuse me for wanting the most important day of our lives to be perfect!' Quatre snapped back, giving me a perfect, perfect shot, of Trowa looming over him as Quat's eyes practically shot fire. They'd want that one framed. And maybe printed onto fridge magnets and mouse pads.

'It's not.' Trowa tossed his hair back and gave Quat the benefit of both eyes again. He also did like to go heavy on the artillery. Quatre was practically swooning. I took another picture or two and lip-synched in time with Trowa.

'The most important day of my life was the day I met you. You know that.'

Quat did his usual melty thing after that, collapsing into Trowa's arms and getting the stuffing kissed out of him.

You get used to it,' I said casually, winking at Heero and Wufei, who'd strategically taken cover behind a camellia in a terracotta pot. I had to admire Heero; it was a couple of years since he'd left Preventers, but he still moved fast in a crisis. 'They've been doing this at least once a day since I've got here. You two are just lucky that you missed the great Sugared Almond Conflict of last Wednesday. That was _really_ bad. Trowa ended up slinging Quat over his shoulder and threatening to throw him in the swimming pool. In the end, he carried him upstairs, and threw him on the bed instead. That seemed to settle it.'

'Hey!' Quatre protested, emerging from his boyfriend's embrace looking rumpled and red-faced and with his pretty flowers hanging over one ear. Sweet. 'I am actually standing here, you know!'

'You looked busy, sweetie.' I tossed a grin in Wufei's direction. 'Piece of advice for you, 'Fei, for when it's your turn. First rule of wedding planning; humour the bride at all costs.'

'I am _not_ the bride, Duo Maxwell! Why do people keep calling me that?'

'Possibly, and this is a totally wild guess, it's because you're wearing pale pink rosebuds and ribbons in your hair. Very fetching.'

'Trowa! You never told me! I went to a meeting with my marketing department like this!'

'And I'm sure everyone thought you looked beautiful,' Trowa said adoringly. 'I know I'm not supposed to know anything about what you're wearing on Sunday, but I hope you'll have flowers like that in your hair.'

'Oh, Trowa!' He cast himself into Tro's arms again. Lucky he'd chosen a partner with lots of upper body strength, really. 'Do you have _any_ idea how much I love you?'

'Quatre,' Heero cut in, destroying the mushy moment. Killjoy. 'Wasn't there something you wanted to talk to Duo about?'

'Uh oh. What's up? Don't tell me there's another problem with the caterers?' No response. Shit. It had to be bad. 'Not the cake?'

Quatre gave a minor shake of his blond head. OK, it was _seriously_ bad if he couldn't even talk about it.

'Something to do with the honeymoon?'

'It's not about the stupid wedding!' Quatre burst out, suddenly flinging himself at me.

'Quatre,' Trowa said quietly, disengaging his blond octopus. 'I think we should go into the library to talk about this. Privately.'

I was getting seriously worried by the time we'd all found seats in the library. If something had happened to Howard or Hilde, surely they would just _tell_ me.

'We just want to talk to you, Duo,' Quatre said. 'Very casually. We don't want you to think it's an intervention or anything like that.'

'_Excuse_ me? I didn't until you just said that. Why the hell would you want to …to _intervene_ me? Is it because I drank a bit too much wine last night at dinner? It was just that it was very good and the waiter kept filling my glass when I wasn't looking.' Plus emptying my glass constantly gave me something to do other than not look at Heero. 'I don't actually have a problem with alcohol.'

Lots of uncomfortable silence and 'you go first' eye contact between the others later, Heero finally spoke up.

'We know what's going on. With you and Chris.'

_What? _

It took me a couple of minutes actually to process that and remember who Chris was.

Uh oh.

Shit.

Of course, they'd been bound to find out eventually, but I hadn't wanted them to know 'til after the wedding.

'I followed you this afternoon,' Heero told me, in his best mission-report voice. 'I'm sorry, Duo, but I heard you talking on the phone to him, and you looked so – dejected setting off.'

'You did _what_?' I gaped over at him. 'That was none of your business!'

'I was,' he looked deliberately down at his hands, 'a little concerned about the phone conversation I heard over breakfast. That man, the one you say you've been seeing, seemed to be pressuring into doing something you didn't want, and you were clearly very uncomfortable, and you've never mentioned this person to the others, so you obviously don't want him to meet your friends and Duo, I'm sorry, but I was worried.'

'Right,' I said levelly. 'You overheard a small part of a very out-of-context conversation, so you decided to tail me. What the _fuck_, Yuy?'

'It is very much our business if our friend is being mistreated like that,' Wufei put in. He was sitting very upright on a hard chair. I'd got so used to seeing him accessorising with a tall blond prince that he looked oddly incomplete by himself. Then it sunk in what he'd actually said.

'Exactly,' Heero pounced. 'We don't know what sort of hold this man has over you, but he's obviously forcing you to do things against your will, and you're clearly unhappy with him.'

'Let me get this totally straight,' I said in a voice that shook only very slightly. 'You think I'm having an affair with Chris, and that he's abusing me somehow?'

Nods all around.

Oh, God.

I couldn't do this; instead I lowered my head onto my arms, and suddenly had the four of them wrapped around me.

'Duo, stop.' The arm around my shaking shoulders was Heero's. 'I'm sorry. But you can't go on like this. You've got to get out of this situation and we're all here for you. We'll help you. I'll do anything you want. Please, we didn't mean to upset you.'

Shit; he sounded so concerned, like he really cared what happened to me.

'Heero,' I straightened up, which wasn't easy given that Quatre was wrapped around my neck, wiped tears out of my eyes, and gave one last wheeze of laughter. 'You didn't upset me. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my whole life. Me, having an affair with Chris!'

'We didn't know!' Quatre said despairingly. 'But you told Heero you'd been seeing this person for a month or so and you haven't been yourself for the past few weeks, and Heero said you looked very upset when you left the café.'

'Well, maybe instead of Heero _spying_ on me, which I am seriously not happy about, you could have just asked me. Did you even consider that?'

'We _are_ asking you,' Quatre breathed. 'Duo, please, tell us what's wrong.'

Oh, shit. OK, I just couldn't take this any more. Quat would be crying in a minute, Wufei looked ready to kill someone with the first weapon that came to hand, Trowa was doing his best to blend into the tapestry cover on his armchair – he's always been great at disguises – and Heero still had an arm around me and that felt far too good and it was very wrong how much I was enjoying that.

Too, too much.

'So what exactly is going on?' Heero pressed.

'Here's the thing, and I _don't_ want you making a big deal out of it, OK? Chris is in charge of my loan at the bank.' I watched four jaws simultaneously hit the floor and slide gently along the priceless Persian rug. 'I've been having a bit of a cash flow problem recently. Not many people want classic cars in a recession. Chris is a nice guy and I'm helping him fix up this old car he's bought, so he's been trying to help me with my balance sheets and stuff, but I think it's actually time to give up.' I shrugged, trying not to let it show how much that admission hurt.

'He's been really great, actually. We worked out a business plan last month, and I thought if I could cut down on expenditure, I might be able to hold on for a bit longer, so I let the apartment go and…'

'You said that was because you were tired of driving across town every day,' Quatre interrupted. 'And that you were moving somewhere closer to the garage.'

'Yeah. And I will, when I find somewhere in the right price range.' Preferably free. Or somewhere where I'd actually get paid to live there.

Heero frowned down at me. 'So where exactly are you living right now?'

'In my office at the garage. Look, it's fine. It's just for a while and I've been living here for the past couple of weeks anyway so it's…'

'But it's just one tiny little room!' Quatre protested. 'And there isn't a proper bathroom or anything!'

'It's _fine_, Quat.' I forced myself to smile at him. 'Seriously. I've lived in way worse places.' Well, that was true. Just because I'd had a year of living in my lovely apartment beside the harbour didn't mean I couldn't still appreciate having walls. Or a roof. 'And when I sell up, even after paying the loans back, there should be enough left for a deposit on a new place, so it's all good.'

'But…running your garage was your dream!' Quatre gasped, and I hunched one shoulder at him.

Who the hell in the universe cared about that? Sure, I'd had dreams. I'd wanted to save the world. I'd wanted Heero to love me. I'd wanted to make a life and a business on L2 and give other street kids some sort of a chance at lives of their own.

Dreams are shit. I'd thought running my own garage might actually be the one dream I'd manage to achieve but I hadn't even been able to do that.

'Look, some people obviously aren't meant to run their own businesses. I'll be able to get another job easy enough; it's no big deal.'

'Duo, why didn't you tell us you were having problems?' Quatre again. My best friend, who would have taken the universe apart to make me happy, but couldn't fix this; not really.

'You were up to your eyes with the wedding stuff. You didn't need my shit on top of all that.'

Quat's blue eyes were suddenly shiny, and there was a little choke in his voice when he spoke. 'Do you really think I'm that poor a friend to you that I wouldn't have wanted to know what was happening in your life?'

'No! God, no! The opposite, if anything. I knew you'd go all out to help me. But you already gave me the start–up loan and I haven't even begun to pay it back. I couldn't ask you to throw more money into a business that was obviously doomed.'

Quatre glared at me. 'Since when have you given up on things that easily? Now, you and I are going to sit down with your accounts and work things out.'

'We have an appointment with the tailor for…'

'Screw the tailor!' he snapped. Wufei was suddenly scarlet and Trowa choked back a laugh. 'This is far more important. We are going to sort this out and _then_, Maxwell, we are going to have a long talk about why you kept this from the people who are supposed to be your closest friends. I mean that. You have been there for every one of us when we needed help. Always. And you're doing it now; spending all your time here when you have a business to run.'

'Not much of a one, right now,' I muttered.

'Then you need to adapt.' Quatre was suddenly very much the CEO. 'You have a well-equipped garage and you're an excellent mechanic. It's unfortunate that you started a very specialised service in the middle of a global recession, but that just means you'll have to broaden your customer base until the economy improves.'

Wufei cleared his throat in the background. 'I may be able to help there. The Preventers mechanics are always overworked. Director Une was talking about outsourcing some of the maintenance work, but she hasn't found any reliable garages. She may be able to put some work your way.'

'I'll have a fleet of security vehicles,' Heero said at once. 'They'll need regular services. If you're interested?'

'That's a great idea,' Trowa agreed. 'In fact, I think we should leave you two to discuss it.'

'Oh, yes!' Quatre bubbled. 'I'll just go and get my laptop and we can get started straightaway.'

'Quatre.' Trowa used his lion taming voice. 'Wufei. Heero and Duo need to talk about a mutually beneficial partnership. In private. We are going to leave them to do that. Correct?'

'Oh!' Quatre stood up, taking Trowa's outstretched hand and flushing a little, not seeming to mind in the least his partner's sudden highhandedness. From Trowa's little smirk, he'd realised that as well.

Traitors. Taking off and leaving me alone with the one person in the universe I'd been studiously avoiding for months, and who currently had one arm firmly locked around me.

'Ah. You can let me go now.'

'Certainly not. You'll just find some excuse to run off and go to ground somewhere. Besides,' he shifted slightly, tugging me a little bit closer, 'I'm enjoying this.'

'Don't I get a say in it?'

'No, actually.'

'Oh. Well, FYI, I have no intention of running anywhere. I need to yell at you. Where the hell do you get off; making stupid assumptions about me and _following_ me, and then running to the others with your stupid imaginary stories?'

'I was concerned,' he said calmly, 'just as you would have been if it had been any one of us. Now, on the subject of imaginary stories, you weren't drunk that night you kissed me,' he went on, quite conversationally. 'I was watching you. You hardly had anything to drink.'

'What, you were stalking me for the entire night?'

'_Watching_ you. Why did you lie to me?'

'Why d'you fucking _think_, Heero? I've missed you. I've missed having you in my life. But I obviously screwed the two of us up, and I wanted things to get back to how they used to be before.'

'And are they?'

'I don't know. Probably not. Since we never did this…snuggling stuff before.' I didn't think I'd ever used that word in my life, but it was appropriate for the current position. Which was actually rather pleasant.

'Why don't you tell me the truth this time?'

Gah, he should have taken up interrogation on a professional level. Olympic standard, at least. Impossible, utterly, to lie to those eyes that were bluer than blue, a shade of blue I'd never seen anywhere else in the universe.

'Truth, then. I've always liked you. I used to think you had a thing for 'Lena and I didn't have a chance. Then she brought some guy to Quat's engagement party that night, and you didn't seem to care, and I just thought…wondered, really, what that might mean.' His eyes, looking down at me, were positively glowing. 'So I kissed you, and said that stuff, and then Hilde came in saying dinner was ready and I freaked out and ran.'

'I remember that bit, actually.' The arm around me tightened; OK, I wasn't going to be let go anytime soon. 'Why have you been avoiding me since then?'

'I haven't! I've just been very busy ruining a business and planning a wedding and I thought you were mad with me because you never mentioned it, and I decided it was better if we just forgot the whole thing.'

'You're such an idiot,' he said lovingly, the sort of tone Trowa used to Quatre, sometimes. 'I thought you needed some space at first, and then I thought you were regretting it, or that I hadn't been any good.'

'No!' I said quickly, remembering. 'You were great! Brilliant! I mean, it was the first time I'd ever kissed anyone and I thought it'd be all awkward but it wasn't.'

'No. It wasn't.'

It had been recognition of something that had been there for a very long time, and acceptance and a sudden flare of need, and then absolute perfection.

'You could do it again if you liked,' I offered, and then thought of something else and jerked away. 'Shit! Heero, you didn't follow Chris home and kill him or anything, did you?'

'Of course not.' He grabbed the braid like a leash, reeling me in. 'I didn't need to follow him; I took the number of his car to trace him. You're getting careless, aren't you? Not noticing me.'

'Well, I'm allowed to be, now that I'm not a terrorist anymore. And I had a lot on my mind. Chocolate truffles and harpists and fabric samples.'

'And me?' The smirk on his face just deepened when I nodded briefly.

'I'm still pissed at you, just so you know.'

'Hn, I can tell. I was worried about you, Duo. Why didn't you tell someone what was wrong?'

'Oh, I don't know. I should be used to it by now, but it still sucks being the one failure out of the lot of us.'

'_What_?' He sat upright suddenly, and a burning pain laced through my scalp as my poor braid was pulled half-out of my skull. 'Duo, love, I'm so sorry.'

'Yeah,' I mumbled, started to mumble before his mouth was on mine and speech didn't really seem all that important. Over-rated things, words. Just getting in the way when there are actually way better ways for tongues and lips and teeth to be occupied.

'You are _not_ a failure,' he told me some time later when we'd mutually decided that oxygen was rather a desirable thing. 'You're the only reason any of us ever succeeded at anything. You're the one who convinced me to leave Preventers, and you talked Trowa into going to university, and you set Wufei up with Zechs and I know exactly how much time you spent letting Quatre moan to you when he started running WEI. Now, it's about time we started helping you in return.'

'Is that what all this is about? That you feel…obliged to me in some way?'

'God, you're such a _moron_, Maxwell,' he scolded fondly. 'If you seriously think I'm kissing you because I'm feel _obliged_ to, then there's absolutely no hope for you. Now, you are going to kiss me again, and then we're going to find that seating plan of yours so you can actually put me beside you, instead of at the other end of the room, and then we are going to go out for the day, just the two of us, and talk.'

'I _can't_. I have a zillion things to do and _oh_!' He kissed me again, and I mentally added _Kiss Heero_ to the list in my head. To the very top of the list, in fact.

'As far as I can see, this wedding is planned to within an inch of its life,' he said firmly. 'I can't imagine Quatre will object to you taking some time off, assuming he even notices you're not here.'

I had to laugh at that. 'Yeah, he really likes Tro when he goes all masterful.' Right. Deep breath, Duo. There was no reason why 'Fei and Zechsy couldn't take point for a few hours. Probably be good practice for them, for when they decide to take the plunge. 'OK. I guess I could take a few hours off from wedding planning.'

He smiled. 'I think we have other things to plan, don't we? Like our first official date?'

'That sounds great. Oh! Just give me two minutes. I need to cancel the doves and then…'

'Forget the doves,' Heero ordered emphatically, and kissed me.

I never did get around to cancelling the damn things, what with one thing and another, but Quatre had his gardeners build them a dove cote in the stable-yard and kept them as pets. In lieu of releasing wild life during the ceremony, we scattered bird seed at the happy couple and got bombarded by sparrows and starlings.

Instead of saying his vows, Trowa played a piece he'd composed himself, and his very overcome partner was sobbing so hard during his own recital that it was almost impossible to hear what he was saying. Flute playing definitely came into it though.

The flower girls behaved impeccably during the ceremony, and then had a marshmallow fight at the chocolate fountain. They still got the ponies, though, as the official photos had been taken by then.

Heero and I sat together, not as friends, but as something more, and he dragged me on to the dance floor as soon as Tro and Quat had done their official first dance.

We found a quiet little corner of the terrace to watch the fireworks at midnight; just the two of us. This time, when I told Heero how I felt about him, I didn't run away afterwards, but he kept both arms around me, just in case. Then he told me just how he felt about me, and said that Quat probably wouldn't want to get involved in planning a wedding immediately after his own, but I'd maybe want to check with him about major WEI functions over the next year or so, so there wouldn't be any conflict of dates.


End file.
